


Coming to Terms

by mydeira



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 13:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alan tries to make sense of everything following the events of “The Lost Boy”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming to Terms

The evening was quiet and calm, stars and moon hanging innocuously in the sky. Alan found it difficult to believe that a few short days ago that same moon had nearly crashed into the earth. And before that a meteor. And before that Maria’s very existence had been wiped from everyone’s recollection but his. He didn’t even care to think about the oddities he’d casually dismissed prior to getting his eyes opened.

The sheer normalcy of sitting in Sarah Jane’s back yard, sharing a bottle of wine while the children were supposedly busy inside, was more than a little jarring.

“Do you ever get used to it?” he finally asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between them.

Sarah Jane gave him a warm smile, both understanding and sympathetic. “I don’t think one can ever get used to it exactly. Comfortable, possibly, but even that’s a bit of a stretch.” She sipped her wine thoughtfully. “I think perhaps you do eventually learn to accept it and deal with whatever comes your way. Like most things in life, I guess.”

“A lot like being a parent, then.”

“Oh, no, being a parent is much more terrifying.”

“You have a point.” They both laughed.

Topping off both of their glasses, she said, “I don’t think I ever got around to thanking you for all you did. I’m not sure what I would have been able to do without that virus.”

“You would have figured out something.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.” She grew serious. “It’s a considerable amount of luck and a hell of a lot of trial and error. So much error.”

“It’s good to know you’re as human as the rest of us,” he tried for levity.

Her smile was faint and even more fleeting. “I really should have done more to keep the children out of this, especially Maria and Clyde.”

“If I know anything, or anyone, it’s my daughter. Well, mostly,” he added sheepishly. “But believe me, she’d have found a way to get involved one way or another. She can be pretty determined.”

“As can Clyde. Throw them both in the mix, and you’ve got quite a force to reckon with.” She relaxed somewhat. “I’m so grateful to the both of them. Especially with Luke. I’d be rather lost without them, I think.”

“You’d muddle through like the rest of us. Though, friends are a godsend.” He leaned back and gazed up at the sky. “But enough about being parents and adults. Tell me about the good aliens you’ve met. There are good ones, right?”

That earned him a genuine Sarah Jane smile. And a laugh. “Yes, Alan, there are good aliens. It’s humans you need to watch out for.”

“We do tend to be a rather frightening lot.”

“You have no idea.” She shook her head, sipped her wine, then continued. “I suppose I should start with the Doctor; he’s the one who opened my eyes to all of this.”

She went on to tell him about Sontarans and the Middle Ages, dinosaurs in London, forbidding planets, planets of spiders… The more Sarah Jane talked, the more relaxed she grew. Her face lit up, her eyes danced, and she smiled more than Alan ever seen. She had a wonderful smile.

Something she said caught his attention. “Hold on, Cybermen?” Why did that name sound familiar?

“Metal soldiers, of a sort. Rather Art Deco in style. They tried invading about a year ago. Along with the Daleks.”

It was there, a vague sense a familiarity.

“They started coming through as ghosts.” Her voice had a low, encouraging note to it. “The world went a bit mad with ghost fever, thinking loved ones returned and other rubbish.”

“Ghosts…” Half-formed, shadowy figures that were everywhere. He’d camped out in Maria’s bedroom for nearly a week because she refused to go to sleep otherwise. Chrissie had a fit saying Maria was too old for such coddling. During one such fight, Chrissie had let Ivan slip and things had pretty much gone to shit from there. Well, they’d been going to shit for awhile, but that was when he’d finally admitted it. No need to revisit that. He turned back to the Cybermen and the ghosts. “Didn’t the government say it was some global hallucination caused by tainted bottle water?”

“Of course they did. They needed some rational explanation for the general population to believe. Said that for the Sycorax, too.” Sarah Jane smiled wryly. “You’d think after awhile people would get leery of the water system.”

Metal monsters stomping through the streets. And in the sky. But, no, those were different. “Were the flying pepper pots real, too?”

“Oh, yes, the Daleks were very real.”

“There was so much running and screaming that day. How could I forget it?”

Her hand settled gently atop his, warm and reassuring. “You had to forget, Alan. The human mind has to gloss over what it isn’t ready to accept, otherwise…”

“You go mad.”

She nodded. “It’s self-preservation.”

“It’s bloody annoying is what it is,” he said with a touch of humor.

“Isn’t it?”

They exchanged a grin before Sarah Jane removed her hand and settled back into her corner of the bench.

“Didn’t you mention something about meeting the Loch Ness monster?” Alan prompted after a moment.

She giggled. “I did. And believe me, pictures don’t do it justice.”

He sat there, listening to her tales, comforted by it all somehow. The universe had suddenly become a vast and terrifying and more wonderful place. He didn’t doubt there were going to be times he wished he still was ignorant of it all. But now wasn’t one of them.


End file.
